Climate Change and Human Health: Any Hope for Policy?

Professor Alcabes will discuss why it is so difficult to develop firm policy recommendations for protecting the public's health in the face of environmental change. The talk will cover three areas: the interactions between climate and health, the nature of climate policy in relation to predicted changes in the environment, and the problems of studying human health in relation to climate and climate change.

Philip Alcabes is Professor of Public Health and director of the Master of Public Health program at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY. Trained as an epidemiologist, he has studied the field of public health broadly over the past 15 years, writing about public health policy, history, and ethics. His book Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics (Public Affairs, 2009) covered the historical development of the concept of an epidemic. He is currently collaborating with the Environmental Studies faculty at Adelphi University in developing an institute for studying the effects of climate change on ecosystems and communities on Long Island.